Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 39

Thread: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

  1. #1

    Default Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    So far I have:

    Tennessee Stud
    Molly And Tenbrooks
    Blue Mule

    What have you got?

  2. The following members say thank you to OldSausage for this post:


  3. #2
    bon vivant jaycat's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Boston, Mass.
    Posts
    2,775

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Is that Blue Mule of Kentucky?
    "The paths of experimentation twist and turn through mountains of miscalculations, and often lose themselves in error and darkness!"
    --Leslie Daniel, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die."

    Some tunes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1...SV2qtug/videos

  4. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to jaycat For This Useful Post:


  5. #3
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    24,807
    Blog Entries
    56

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Does it have to be a song?

    Spotted Pony is a great OT tune.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  6. #4

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Tunes are just fine, too.

    I unexpectedly found this video which pleased me a lot:


  7. #5

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Quote Originally Posted by jaycat View Post
    Is that Blue Mule of Kentucky?
    This is the Blue Mule I had in mind:


  8. #6
    Registered Muser dang's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Omaha, NE
    Posts
    1,185

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Another Peter Rowan song. It is slower and probably not bluegrass or old-time, but it is about horses...!

    I have a live recording from alaska where he tells a story about him playing the chords and asking his young daughter one night to "sing the words that belonged there"... Probably just another peter rowan story but it is a hauntingly good song
    I should be pickin' rather than postin'

  9. #7
    Registered User Ky Slim's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Kentucky
    Posts
    588

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Del has this one


  10. #8
    bon vivant jaycat's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Boston, Mass.
    Posts
    2,775

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    If it doesn't have to be BG/OT, I would throw in Chestnut Mare (Byrds) and Pony (Tom Waits).

    Marty Robbins did "Strawberry Roan."

    Gene Vincent, "Red Blue Jeans and a Ponytail," does that count?

  11. #9
    Registered Muser dang's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Omaha, NE
    Posts
    1,185

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Rowan Rice Quartet with Wild Mustang, with Sharon Gilchrist on Mandolin:
    I should be pickin' rather than postin'

  12. #10

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    old dangerfield is named after Monroe's horse (I think)

    She loves to ride horses (Guy Clark)

    Flop Eared Mule ?

    Wheel Hoss !

  13. The following members say thank you to Marc Katz for this post:


  14. #11
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    24,807
    Blog Entries
    56

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Floppy Eared Mule - good one. I should have thought of that.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  15. #12
    Registered User Jackgaryk's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    North Georgia
    Posts
    265

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Norman Blake's...Old Gray Mare. great tune.

  16. #13

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    "Stewball" The Country Gentlemen did this one.

    From Wikipedia:

    There are two major different versions of the sporting ballad, generally titled either "Skewball" or "Stewball"; the latter is more popular in America. There are multiple variations within the two major divisions. Versions date at least as far back as the 18th century, appearing on numerous broadsides. In both songs the title horse is the underdog in the race, up against a favored grey mare (usually called either "Griselda" or "Molly"), and although in most versions of Stewball the winning horse triumphs due to the stumbling of the lead horse, Skewball wins simply by being the faster horse in the end. Probably the most significant lyrical difference in the songs is the conversation Skewball has with his jockey, while Stewball behaves more like a typical horse and does not speak.

    The oldest broadside identified with the ballad is dated 1784 and is held by the Harding Collection of the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford. The song had spread to America by 1829 when it was published in a songbook in Hartford. American versions were sung and adapted by slaves in the Southern United States, and have Stewball racing in California, Texas, and Kentucky. British and Irish versions, when the setting is mentioned, usually place the race in Kildare, Ireland, leading some to believe that the song is actually Irish in origin.[2] The grey mare was owned by Sir Ralph Gore, whose family had gained a great deal of land in Ireland with the Protestant Cromwellian invasion (starting in 1650), which probably accounts for the delight in Skewball's win "breaking Sir Gore" in the final lines of this Irish-based broadside.[1]

    The song is in the Roud Folk Song Index, #456.
    Hal Jeanes

  17. The following members say thank you to Hal Jeanes for this post:


  18. #14
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Rochester NY 14610
    Posts
    17,378

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Well, obviously Camptown Races. Then there's Wakefield's New Camptown Races.

    Saddle Up the Gray
    Working On the New Railroad ("Once I had a big gray horse, Darrow was his name...")
    Wagoner's Lad
    From Earth to Heaven
    (Uncle Dave Macon)
    Bachelor's Hall ("I rode seven horses clean to death...")
    Six White Horses
    Mule Skinner Blues
    (if we're including mules)

    If you're into the "cowboy songs" genre, there's a million of 'em.
    Allen Hopkins
    Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
    Natl Triolian Dobro mando
    Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
    H-O mandolinetto
    Stradolin Vega banjolin
    Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
    Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
    Flatiron 3K OM

  19. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to allenhopkins For This Useful Post:


  20. #15
    Registered User mandomurph's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Los Altos, California
    Posts
    245

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Dead Horse Trampoline
    mandomurph

    Joyful pickin'!

  21. #16
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Indianapolis
    Posts
    108

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Wild Horses at Stony Point
    "Be kind to the band; they never get to dance"

  22. #17

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Not exactly bluegrass/old time but Michael Martin Murphy's "Wildfire" came to mind.

    Bill Monroe did "Goodbye Old Pal" and "Old Grey Mare Came Tearing Out of the Wilderness."
    2010 Heiden A5, 2020 Pomeroy oval A, 2013 Kentucky KM1000 F5, 2012 Girouard A Mandola w ff holes, 2001 Old Wave A oval octave
    http://HillbillyChamberMusic.bandcamp.com
    Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@hillbillychambermusic

  23. The following members say thank you to Don Grieser for this post:


  24. #18
    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Kalamazoo, MI.
    Posts
    7,487

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Road apples
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

  25. #19
    Registered User Carl Robin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Tucson
    Posts
    202

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Bluegrass? Maybe, but I don't know. They are old time melodies, though. Apparently no lyrics
    Thanks to this thread, I just discovered the 2nd one, and already having fun playing it.

    Saddle the Pony
    http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=ab...s.txt/0266&m=p
    The Black Nag
    http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=ww...cknag/0000&m=p

  26. The following members say thank you to Carl Robin for this post:


  27. #20
    Registered User Drew Egerton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Statesville, NC
    Posts
    1,184

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Me & Paul Revere by The Steep Canyon Rangers and Steve Martin
    https://youtu.be/LGjZU-7D6Gk?t=1m12s
    Drew
    2020 Northfield 4th Gen F5
    2022 Northfield NFS-F5E
    2019 Northfield Flat Top Octave
    2021 Gold Tone Mando Cello
    https://www.instagram.com/pilotdrew85

  28. #21

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    -A horse plays a significant role in the "White House Blues"
    -"White Horse Breakdown"
    -The an old time line "wish I had a big fine horse, corn to feed him on" drifts between songs...

  29. The following members say thank you to C. Welter for this post:


  30. #22

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Old Paint
    Old Skewball
    Delaney's Donkey
    Mary's Ass
    Sweet Marie

  31. The following members say thank you to Eddie Sheehy for this post:


  32. #23
    Old Guy Mike Scott's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Bend, OR
    Posts
    754

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Old and in the Way did a blugrass version of the Stones' Wild Horses...

  33. #24
    Registered User Steve VandeWater's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Central Indiana
    Posts
    569

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Kickin' mule
    Sharecropper's Son (mentions a mule)
    Patti Griffin's Whole Heap of Little Horses
    Last edited by Steve VandeWater; Apr-15-2015 at 8:47pm.
    It ain't gotta be perfect, as long as it's perfect enough!

  34. #25
    Mandolin Dreams Unlimited MysTiK PiKn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    S.E. ON CA
    Posts
    997

    Default Re: Bluegrass / Old Time Horse Songs

    Mule Skinner Blues

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •